Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor has long been a supporter of renowned trainer Tom Shaw and has now convinced nearly all of his fellow cornerback teammates to train this offseason with him down in Orlando at the Wide World of Sports facility.
Not only has fellow cornerback William Gay and third-year cornerback Cortez Allen made training with Taylor part of their offseason regime, but Taylor said Tuesday on Trib Live Radio that young cornerbacks Curtis Brown and DeMarcus Van Dyke are also scheduled to begin training under the watchful eye of Shaw over the course of the next two weeks. If you are scoring at home, that\’s five of the nine cornerbacks that are on the Steelers 90 man roster and the entire top of the depth chart.
“We have no choice,” said Taylor. “This is our job; this is our livelihood. This is what we do. We have family, friends, teammates, fans, owners; that\’s a lot of people depending on us. That\’s how I look at it. So there\’re a lot of people depending on me to do what I do for as far as football wise, so I got to prepare myself to be in the best shape physically and mentally for this upcoming season and everybody who\’s down here training, I try to install that in them too. \’This is bigger than what you think it is. If you think, this is big, times that by ten and that\’s how big what we about to do for this 2013 season.\'”
In addition to the aforementioned cornerbacks, Taylor also said that rookie linebackers Jarvis Jones and Vince Williams are also down in Orlando training with Shaw and there is a possibility that wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders might join the group as well.
Taylor, who is currently back home in New Orleans this weekend hosting his 10th annual Face Me Ike Football Camp at the Arden Cahill Academy in Gretna, has long been one of the hardest working Steelers players during the offseason and it\’s good top see that several of the young players are using him as a role model when it comes to training with Shaw.
